Inktober Inspo from Budapest: 18. flightless

There is something mildly ridiculous about being surrounded by aircraft while sitting completely still. Beyond the windows, planes are preparing to cross continents. Inside, you are guarding a coffee, checking the departure board and wondering whether it is too early to eat the emergency sandwich.

For today’s Inktober prompt, flightless, Budapest Airport offers an unexpectedly good setting. There are grounded travellers, stationary suitcases and one particularly patient little composer who makes an excellent drawing subject. Unlike your fellow passengers, he will not suddenly get up and disappear halfway through your sketch.

Whether you are heading home after a Budapest city break or waiting for your next adventure, this is your invitation to turn a little airport downtime into something more interesting than another lap of the shops.

A tiny Franz Liszt with nowhere to rush

Budapest’s miniature sculptures have a talent for turning an ordinary moment into a small discovery. At Budapest Ferenc Liszt International Airport, sculptor Mihály Kolodko’s tiny Franz Liszt brings that spirit right into the terminal. The celebrated composer appears seated on his luggage: a fitting companion for travellers who have also spent rather a lot of time sitting beside theirs.

If an older guide sends you outside Terminal 2A to look for him, do not begin a panicked search around the bus stop. The sculpture moved indoors in 2025 and now sits on the gallery level of SkyCourt, near the entrance to the Mastercard Lounge. This is in the passenger-only area, so you need a valid boarding pass and access to the departures area to visit.

For an Inktober sketch, little Liszt is almost suspiciously cooperative. He will not shift his suitcase, answer his phone or announce that he needs the bathroom just as you begin his face. You can take your time with his silhouette, his luggage and the contrast between a tiny figure and the enormous business of air travel around him.

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He is also a neat answer to the prompt: a famous traveller, sitting perfectly still in a building devoted to taking off. Add an imaginary departure board reading “Still waiting,” and the drawing practically captions itself.

Check in before you get to the airport

Of course, there is enjoyable airport waiting, and then there is discovering that you still need to sort out your boarding pass. One leaves room for drawing. The other tends to produce a rather different style of expressive linework.

Checking in online through your airline’s website or app can make departure from Budapest Airport more straightforward. Depending on the airline, you can receive your boarding pass before leaving for the terminal and keep it electronically or bring a printed copy. Online check-in opening times and conditions vary, so follow your airline’s instructions rather than assuming every carrier plays by the same rules.

With hand baggage only, a valid boarding pass and no outstanding document checks required by your airline, you can generally head straight to security. Checked baggage still needs to be dropped off, and online check-in does not remove your airline’s baggage or boarding deadlines. Think of it as removing one potential queue, not acquiring permission to arrive dramatically late.

Give your suitcase its own departure

If you are travelling with checked baggage, Budapest Airport offers self-service bag drop for participating airlines. You scan your boarding pass, print and attach your baggage tag, then follow the instructions at the automated drop-off point. Flight information monitors indicate which flights can use the service.

It is a small airport victory: your suitcase heads off on its own backstage adventure while you continue towards security, hopefully with your sketchbook still in your hand baggage.

The important word is “participating.” Not every airline or booking will qualify, so check the available options for your flight rather than marching your bag towards the nearest machine with the confidence of someone who has watched half a tutorial.

When “flightless” stops being a joke

A delayed flight is a less charming interpretation of the prompt. If your departure is disrupted, your airline and its ground handling company are the main contacts for flight-specific help. The ground handlers are the teams carrying out tasks such as check-in and boarding on the airline’s behalf; airport information staff can help you find your way and identify where to ask.

For certain major disruptions, service desks may be activated in the departures area. Budapest Airport also has BUD:carezones, where assistance can be provided during long delays in justified circumstances. What is available depends on the situation, so ask staff rather than assuming every delay automatically comes with refreshments and a designated place to settle in.

The airport’s website also lets you turn on real-time notifications for departing or arriving flights. That is useful when you would rather concentrate on drawing Liszt’s luggage than repeatedly refresh your flight details. Keep checking the airport screens, too, especially before heading to your gate.

Your miniature model is not going anywhere. Your aircraft, ideally, is.

Lost sketchbook? Ask the right people

Airport absent-mindedness is a special condition. You can successfully navigate a foreign city for several days, then leave your notebook beside a coffee cup within sight of your departure gate.

For belongings lost in the terminal, including at security, use the airport’s designated Lost Property reporting service as soon as possible. Its remit covers items lost in the airport’s public and passenger-only areas. A clear description of the object and where you last remember having it gives the team something useful to work with. “A notebook containing a tiny composer and several unsuccessful hands” is at least distinctive.

There is a separate route for baggage that fails to arrive: contact your airline’s ground handling representative and report it at the baggage reclaim area before leaving. Items forgotten on an aircraft should also be directed to the airline or its handling team, rather than treated as ordinary terminal lost property. Airport information staff can help point you towards the appropriate contact.

One last Budapest drawing before take-off

Airports might not be the first places that come to mind when you imagine sketching Budapest. There is stiff competition from the Danube, the city’s grand buildings and those cafés where “one quick coffee” somehow becomes an entire afternoon.

But an airport has its own visual stories. A suitcase parked beneath a chair. A traveller asleep under a coat. Aircraft beyond the glass, waiting for their moment. And, in SkyCourt, a tiny Franz Liszt who has mastered the art of sitting patiently with his luggage.

Find a seat without blocking the passenger flow, keep your boarding time in view and give “flightless” a little Budapest character. You could even add a penguin beside Liszt, clutching a boarding pass and looking cautiously optimistic.

Neither of them will fly away halfway through your drawing.